Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 209

209. New Orders (6)

Hyun-woo took something out of his pocket, presenting it almost like a grand gesture. It was the business card Noh Ha-eul had given him previously.

“I’m trying to scout you,” Hyun-woo said.

Noh Ha-eul looked utterly bewildered by Hyun-woo’s words.

“……Excuse me? Me?”

“Yes.”

“……I don’t have any special talents, and I’m not particularly strong either.”

Of course, she was at least a mid-level hunter, competent enough to lead a team in Hwanma. But compared to Hyun-woo’s team, she felt inadequate. Moreover, after witnessing Hyun-woo’s actions, why would he spare her, let alone recruit her?

“It doesn’t matter,” Hyun-woo said with a playful smile.

“Originally, personal connections are more important than skills in our country.”

“Valuing personal connections over ability—our branch manager is truly something,” Song Yeo-un chimed in, a smile playing on her lips.

“To be honest, I don’t really discriminate when it comes to nurturing people. I don’t abandon those who seem hopeless, nor do I favor those who seem promising.”

Song Yeo-un nodded, as if Hyun-woo’s words resonated with her. Even now, her team included several low-grade ability users. However, with Hyun-woo’s support and assistance, they performed at a level comparable to the Taesung Obsidian team.

But Noh Ha-eul was still trying to understand what was happening. She felt like she was being played.

Was he mocking her, reminding her that her life was in his hands? After watching her colleagues die so horribly, did he expect her to beg for her life?

If that’s what he thought, he was surprisingly accurate.

In a flash, Noh Ha-eul activated her acceleration skill. As she moved, Song Yeo-un swiftly drew her whip.

Song Yeo-un’s whip narrowly missed Noh Ha-eul’s neck, grazing over her head.

Noh Ha-eul dropped to the ground, prostrating herself before Hyun-woo, and cried out, “If you spare me, I won’t forget to repay your kindness!”

*Swish.*

The sound of Song Yeo-un’s whip cutting through the air was desolate.

She froze for a moment, then awkwardly retracted her whip.

Hyun-woo looked from Noh Ha-eul to Song Yeo-un, dumbfounded. After a moment of contemplation, Hyun-woo grabbed Noh Ha-eul’s shoulder and helped her up.

Noh Ha-eul, who had seemed so composed moments ago, looked like she was about to burst into tears at the prospect of survival.

At this point, Hyun-woo was at a loss for words.

“Uh, um… I killed your colleagues. Are you okay with that?”

“They were always a bit strange! Ambushing fellow hunters on an important expedition—that’s not normal behavior. Not even rogues would do that. When I first joined Hwanma, I was impressed! ‘Lunatic Tiger’! ‘Korea’s second-ranked clan!’ But the more I learned, the more it felt like some kind of 1980s activist group, always talking about punishing those who collaborated with the government.”

“Ms. Noh Ha-eul, you weren’t on good terms with Taesung either, were you?”

“Of course not. Lee Ji-tae rejected me from the Taesung interview three times.”

“……”

Did that warrant such a solemn expression?

It felt like someone rejected from a major company ended up joining a rival company and meeting them as a mid-level executive—a feeling that was both understandable and complicated.

Come to think of it, Noh Ha-eul joined Hwanma after Lee Ji-tae left, so she had no reason to hold a deep grudge.

“Why were you rejected in the interviews?”

“I drank a little too much the night before……”

“But you still managed to get into Hwanma.”

“That was a bonus factor in Hwanma.”

Just how much of an alcoholic was she?

Hyun-woo briefly considered rescinding the offer, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it, seeing Noh Ha-eul’s complicated expression.

Come to think of it, wasn’t she drunk right now?

She probably didn’t have a high tolerance for alcohol, despite being a heavy drinker.

“It seems like you make it a habit to drink before interviews.”

“Ah…… then is this an interview right now? Will I die if I fail?”

“Are you going to expose everything about me? Are you sharpening the knife of resentment, planning to kill me someday?”

“Of course not!”

“Then that’s fine. It would be a bit troublesome if Ms. Noh Ha-eul didn’t join the clan, but I trust you won’t refuse. I can give you a generous offer. I have so much money coming in that I can’t handle it all.”

Hyun-woo looked at Noh Ha-eul with calm eyes and continued, “What I’m curious about is everything about Park Do-ryeong.”

Noh Ha-eul made a tearful face.

“I wish I could tell you even his underwear size if I could…… but I don’t know much.”

“I’m not curious about his underwear size.”

Hyun-woo whispered in Noh Ha-eul’s ear, “If you’ve heard or seen anything about a place called the Alliance, please tell me everything.”

***

After Noh Ha-eul’s brief interrogation, Hyun-woo released her.

Seo Ji-hoo, who had been waiting outside, escorted Noh Ha-eul away.

Noh Ha-eul remained suspicious, but she followed Seo Ji-hoo with a resigned expression.

“Are you going to clean up?” Song Yeo-un asked Hyun-woo.

“Huh? No. I’m going to spare her. Put her on the team. She’s talented, so she’ll adapt quickly.”

“Seriously, are you sparing her because of personal connections?”

“Her first impression wasn’t bad, she seems like a good person, she’s talented, she has experience, and she doesn’t seem like she’ll betray us. Besides, Noh Ha-eul didn’t attack anyone during the Hwanma raid, did she?”

Song Yeo-un thought back to the Hwanma raid.

It was hard to recall exactly because it was such a chaotic situation, but she remembered Noh Ha-eul mostly loitering in the rear.

The reason she wasn’t killed and was captured alive was because she ran away as soon as things started to go south.

“From the start, she’s not the type to actively participate in a senseless fight. She’s not so mean that we can just exploit her, but if we put her on Odaesung and Johan’s team, they’ll make a good combination. That side is so heavy on brute force; they need someone nimble.”

“Are we people who can be exploited?” Hyun-woo stared at Song Yeo-un after her question.

“We make up for those shortcomings with salary and equipment, right? Do you think you can get that much anywhere else?”

“……Well, definitely.”

After getting on Kang Hyun-woo’s payroll, she became a 4-star hunter and even obtained legendary equipment.

It was something she couldn’t have dreamed of as a former Jeonneungryeon hunter [a smaller, less prestigious hunter association].

He was still registered as a 2-star hunter in the national database, but it didn’t matter since he wouldn’t be putting himself back on the job market anyway.

Accurate ability checks could be requested from Yoo-min or Dr. Dowonkyung.

“Still, that hunter Noh Ha-eul…… seems to know more than I thought, judging by how bright her expression is after you interrogated her.”

“Huh? Ah.”

Hyun-woo smiled. “It wasn’t anything special. She didn’t know anything about the Alliance.”

“Then why……?”

“But that insignificant information was the information I needed.”

***

The man opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was a dark room and an unfamiliar ceiling.

A dim bedside lamp was on near the door, and a green LED light was blinking on the wall.

It was a CCTV camera. It meant he was being watched.

His head was still dizzy.

As consciousness returned, his senses slowly began to return as well. It felt like bugs were crawling on his body.

Then, at some point, an intense pain came, as if a bug had bitten him.

The man tried to scream, but no sound came out. Soon, a terrible pain washed over his entire body.

The man convulsed and screamed silently.

At that moment, someone rushed into the room. It was dark, so he couldn’t see their face. The person, who seemed to be a woman, hurriedly inserted a needle into the IV drip.

As soon as the liquid seeped into his body, the pain began to subside. The man slowly fell asleep.

The man opened his eyes again.

It was still the same ceiling and wall. The CCTV was still blinking green, and nothing seemed to have changed. But the woman was nowhere to be seen.

He didn’t know how much time had passed.

The man remembered regaining consciousness several times. Each time, the woman rushed in, inserted an injection into the IV drip, and repeatedly calmed him down. But today seemed a little different.

The man tensed his body.

The pain came again. But unlike before, it was bearable.

Feeling a tingling sensation as if being pricked with a needle, the man barely managed to lift his hand.

The back of his hand was pale and emaciated. The muscles in his arm were also atrophied.

The man gasped, wondering how much time had passed.

“Calm down. You haven’t fully recovered yet.”

Then suddenly, a strange voice came from the corner of the hospital room. The man struggled to turn his gaze.

A man was sitting in the darkness.

It was a man in a suit. He didn’t know how long he had been there. He seemed as much a part of the room as the furniture.

The man opened his mouth to speak. But only the sound of air escaping his lungs came out; no voice emerged.

The man in the darkness spoke. “To remove the toxins in your body, I had to replace all the blood in your body. And I used so much recovery potion that the natural recovery power in your body is exhausted. So, I pushed your body to its limits to extend your life.”

It was widely known that recovery potions caused a significant decline in the immune system and muscle loss because they accelerated the body’s natural healing processes.

The better the quality of the potion, the fewer such side effects, hence the higher price. But the man didn’t know why he was in this state.

“The air you breathed was air you shouldn’t have breathed. It’s air that humanity shouldn’t face. You inhaled it, so the price had to be high.”

The man recalled the last scene, dredging up his memories.

Kang Hyun-woo.

At that moment, his body trembled. The man in the darkness saw this and smirked.

“Does Kang Hyun-woo come to mind?”

The man tried to raise his body as if convulsing. At that moment, a woman opened the door and entered.

But instead of inserting a needle into the IV drip, the woman supported the man, who was about to fall off the bed, and laid him down immediately. The man in the darkness, watching the scene, spoke.

“It doesn’t seem like we need to worry about his motivation.”

As the man gasped, making a sound of air leaking out, the woman pressed down on his shoulder to calm him down. Then she turned on the bedside lamp.

The moment the room brightened, the man sitting in the darkness disappeared without a trace.

“Team Leader Lee Ji-tae, are you okay?”

Lee Ji-tae.

The moment that name was called, Lee Ji-tae raised his head sharply.

It felt like he had just remembered his name. The woman who was calming him down, the woman who had been nursing him for days, was someone he knew.

“Heueu…… uh?”

“Yes, it’s Jeoknabi [Red Butterfly, her hunter name].”

The hunter who should have been with the Obsidian team, Jeoknabi.

Lee Ji-tae could only make the sound of air leaking out, but Jeoknabi miraculously understood and comforted him.

“Your stamina is very depleted right now. I’ve taken as many measures as possible, but…… even if you recover, you won’t be the same as before. The toxins that have penetrated your body are so virulent.”

Lee Ji-tae looked around.

If Jeoknabi was here, was this a hospital managed by Taesung? But he could tell at a glance that it wasn’t.

It was an old air-raid shelter somewhere with no windows in sight. The walls were old, and a slight geothermal heat could be felt.

It was clear that it was quite deep, but the equipment to treat him was state-of-the-art. Air purifiers, surveillance equipment, treatment facilities, security devices, etc., which were difficult to see even above ground, were scattered haphazardly throughout the room.

“But don’t worry. I’ve taken care of many people who have inhaled these toxins. If you receive good treatment, it’s not impossible to return as a hunter.”

Even at Jeoknabi’s words, Lee Ji-tae’s eyes were full of questions.

Why he was here, where this was, why Jeoknabi was taking care of him, and what happened to Pyongyang. Everything was unknown.

“This is an Alliance facility.”

Jeoknabi explained, as if she had decided to address Lee Ji-tae’s questions one by one.

“Right now, the outside world is Hunter Kang Hyun-woo’s world. Your life could be in danger wherever you go, Team Leader Lee Ji-tae, so we are taking care of you at the Alliance facility.”

At the word Alliance, Lee Ji-tae made a sound of air leaking out again.